A/N: Um… Sorry? I'll try to update more, which I think I've said before, but still. I had some major writer's block. Sorry!

Disclaimer; I do not own Harry Potter or any associated things, blah, blah, yada yada. That's all J.K. Rowlings.


Summer


"Sir?"

Henry's grandfather, one of the most feared dark lords to have ever existed, glanced up at him from the large map he was studying. "Yes?" Henry didn't often interrupt Grindelwald while he was in the higher halls-in here he kept the darker books, his maps, and his letters and notes and plans. Last summer Henry had tried to avoid his grandfather when he was plotting world domination, thank-you-very-much.

"I was wondering…" He paused, wondering how exactly to phrase it.

"What?" His grandfather's voice was irritable. If the place wasn't about to be attacked, he wanted no interruption.

"Sir… I was wondering about a friend of mine coming over for the summer…"

"What?"

His grandfather's voice was both angry and incredulous. He stared at Henry in shock. "Have I taught you nothing? I am wanted world-wide for my 'crimes'. I am a dark lord! Damn it, boy! Has Dumbledore been at your mind again? You have the foolishness to ask if a school friend may visit NURMENGARD?" Grindelwald was appalled, but, above that, furious at the stupidity of his heir. Grindelwald seemed to be greatly offended.

"Did I mention he's a dark lord in my time?" Henry asked hastily, knowing he probably shouldn't be saying this.

Grindelwald froze.

He stared at Henry with an indecipherable look for a moment. Then, he chuckled lowly. He slowly shook his head.

"Perhaps you're not as hopeless as I thought," he mused. Henry wasn't sure if he should be offended or not. "But don't presume, boy, that this ensures he is dark lord material-some dark lords are weak, for all their rank. I will not be the one to let a hopeless case rise. Will it be worth it, then, if I let him come?"

Henry wasn't just asking for a friend's company for a day or two, and his grandfather knew it. Henry was, in essence, asking for training-not just for Tom but for himself as well. The knowledge that his heir would be taking on his role in the future made him pleased. Perhaps this was why the surly dark lord was so amiable that day.

"How long?"


"So, here is the person who persuaded my heir to follow the 'dark'."

"Sir."

Tom's voice was calm and even as he inclined his head slightly. His dark, glittering eyes did not leave those of Grindelwald's. First impressions, he knew, were vitally important.

Grindelwald clasped his hands behind his back, meeting the gaze for a moment before taking in Tom's appearance. He had worn his best robes for the occasion. Henry sat on a nearby chair, face blank, trying not to show his nerves. He didn't know how Tom managed to be so emotionless. Henry couldn't stop the occasional twitching or shifting, or the distracted little motions which let his feelings be known. Tom, in contrast, always seemed perfectly calm, and Henry was rather certain he had no occlumency training via dark lord to aid that appearance.

"Why don't you sit down?" Grindelwald's smooth voice broke the tense atmosphere. Henry couldn't help the small sigh of relief that passed his lips-he'd been sure his grandfather would avada his friend then and there! Grindelwald's eyes flickered to him at the sound, but he said nothing.

Grindelwald and Tom were silent for a time, looking as though caught in a staring contest. Henry was getting anxious. Just when he thought he could stand the silence no longer, a slow smile crept over his grandfather's face.

"Yes. You will do just fine." He nodded once to Tom and Henry separately and left without further preamble.


Eyes had not been able to see what had occurred

Tom was aware in some far corner of his mind that Henry was sitting in the room and was very confused. But he couldn't spare much thought for his friend.

When he and Grindelwald- Grindelwald! –had locked eyes, Tom's untrained mind had felt the probing and answered. He had no occlumency skills to speak of, but he had read of it, and of its counterpart, legilimency-the mind-probing technique he felt was being used on his being by this powerful dark lord. Suddenly it did not matter how good first impressions were, or if he was meant to allow this intrusion as some sort of test. He bowed to no one, and this man would NEVER get into his mind! And with that firmly in thought, he pushed the enemy intrusion out.

Was that a flicker of surprise in Grindelwald's face? He couldn't tell, and if it was it was gone too quickly for note; the probe was back again, and fiercer than ever, not bothering to try and be subtle now he knew his search would be felt. Outside Tom showed nothing, but inwardly he cringed at the pain. Gods, but it hurt!

What followed the initial legilimency attack was hard to describe; A more experienced legilimens or occlumens might try to visualize a physical defense to withhold the invasion of his mind, and would likely do so while inside their mind. Tom, however, had not even amateur knowledge in this regard; he felt the push, and responded, and did his best to guard. But though his meek defenses encouraged him a little, his hopes were crushed in seconds as Grindelwald easily swept them aside after several minutes. With a bit of true horror he realized, then, that Grindelwald had just been feeling his defenses-he was toying with him.

Now, Tom was not and had never been arrogant. Arrogance was suicide, in his opinion, and anyone who knew the meaning behind the name Voldemort would laugh at the thought of Tom doing any such thing. But while he was careful and cautious and always told himself that he should overestimate others and underestimate himself, if he was to be safe, he was still well aware his magical prowess was astonishing. And so it was with no small dismay he recognized the power of Lord Grindelwald.

He will crush me. Henry did change the past, Now I will meet my death, here, tricked by a dark lord afraid of competition, and he will squash me with no fight because I am not yet any competition. He will kill me as if I were a wingless fly. I am dead. I am dead. I-

He held himself rigid as a smile worked its way onto Grindelwald's face. Death was his one greatest fear.

But Grindelwald did not raise his wand.

"Yes. You will do just fine."


July Tenth, two p.m.

Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, was fairly quiet compared to how it sometimes was. There was, in fact, only twelve currently in the house, if you so chose to ignore the ancient house-elf and hippogriff. Among these twelve were six red-heads- the Weasley twins, the two youngest Weasleys, and their parents- and a fifteen-year-old girl. There was also an escaped convict by the name of Sirius Black, a werewolf professor by the title of Remus Lupin, two aurors, being Nymphadora Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt, as well as a thief, Mundungus Fletcher, who had earned the not-so-affectionate nickname 'Dung'.

At the moment, nothing of much excitement was occurring. In fact, the children were currently rather bored, one or two cleaning, and though they would never admit it for fear of sounding childish the adults were also succumbing to the aforementioned condition. In several minutes, however, it could be safely said they would have preferred boredom to what would happen that day. Especially, mind, when the reasons for the disturbance one day became known-although that, of course, would not be for quite a time yet. This disturbance came in the form of one Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody.

Now, normally if Mad-Eye had come through the door of Grimmauld speaking or complaining loudly it would take a moment or two before any attention was focused on him, simply because his yelling was so commonplace. As it was, however, his current agitation was immediately noticed, and rightly so. This was because Mad-Eye had just minutes before left to take watch over Harry Potter. Alastor Moody did not just ignore watch duty. And this was why all the inhabitants of Grimmauld Place, London, bolted up from there spots in the living room or kitchen to hear what he had to say, and all at once the house was thrown into chaos.

"Potter's missing!"

In the uproar that followed, what with the children yelling in confusion and Molly adding her voice to the mayhem as well, those who could better keep their calm slowly turned to a very pale Mundungus Fletcher.


July Tenth, four p.m.

Grimmauld Place was packed to the brim with magic folk less than two hours after Harry's absence was noticed. Some of the Order of the Phoenix was missing, but only one or two-this was an emergency. All about the house wizards were yelling, muttering, whispering, or in some cases just sitting in stony, grim silence.

The door opened, and the house went silent.

Dumbledore strode in, blue eyes dark, looking solemn. With a tense silence the other's silently filed into the meeting room. The teenagers followed as well. No one moved to stop them.

When they were all seated, Dumbledore sighed and paused a moment, eyes brooding. After a brief pause, he lifted his eyes.

"Harry is not at his aunt and uncle's house." His voice was quiet, and slid into the silence without breaking it. They knew what he said already. "How has this happened?"

Every eye in the room slid to Mundungus Fletcher.

Mundungus rose, shakily, unable to ignore that everyone-even Dumbledore-was waiting for him to speak. He cleared his dry throat nervously. "Look, now, ya can't pos'bly blame dis on me-" There were a few mutters, and the terrible atmosphere was shattered. Despite their disgust, he was emboldened by the noises in contrast to the eerie quiet. "C'mon, now, I have the night shift, I weren't 'specting to see Harry, of course I didn't notice him missun, prolly dint even leave at night, wha 'bout the person afore me-" This time it was not just mutters that came from the Order members. A few stood up in fury as they spoke harshly to Mundungus, angered.

"Are you trying to say something, Dung-"

"Are you thick?! Who would kidnap someone in broad daylight! Of course it was during your shift, you moron-"

"How do we know you weren't doing some of your smuggling, you dirty liar-"

Don't think you can pin this on others, Dung-!"

"How dare you be so selfish-"

"We don't want to hear your excuses! You lazy, cowardly scum-"

"Are you trying to say he was taken on my watch-?!"

"SILENCE!"

"…"

Dumbledore was glaring at the Order, such an unnatural look that they quailed immediately. Slowly, they sat down.

"Thank you." His icy gaze encompassed the room; they all felt suddenly very small and guilty. "Now, Mundungus, did you notice nothing out of sort on your watch?"

"I-well-actually-" Mundungus was shaking a little. Dumbledore let him off with a lot, but…

"Mundungus?"

"I… I was a-actually looking into a few cheap antiques, real good prices, heh…" His weak voice trailed off. Dumbledore said nothing, staring at him silently. Mundungus gazed back, wide-eyed, and then swiftly sprang to his feet, twisted, and with a loud CRACK was gone. Dumbledore gazed at the seat he had been in a long moment, and then turned back to the order.

"Alastor-?"


"Okay, do you have your portkeys?"

"Yes, mother."

"Okay… Um… Do you have the anti-jinx pendant-"

"Yes, for the third time."

"Okay, what about-"

"Yes, yes, and YES!" Tom glared at Henry. "Henry, calm down already. It's just a raid. We'll have at least two hundred inferi at our backs, not to mention the current dark lord-stop worrying about it!"

"But what if something goes wrong!"

Tom stared at him a moment, then shook his head with slight disgust. "How you're of Grindelwald's get, Henry, I'll never understand."

Ignoring the jab, Henry continued. "Tom, I'm serious-I don't care how powerful you are-"

"And you, too-"

"And me, too, then!" Henry glared. "Point is, there will be adult witches and wizards there, and for all our confidence and power that won't mean anything if we don't know how to act. We're still completely green-"

"Yes, we are, and we'll stay that way if we never dare to go on raids!" Tom gave him a dirty look. "And remember, its Voldemort on raids!"

"Yeah, yeah," Henry gave up. He knew, for all Tom tried to hide it, that the Slytherin was just as anxious as he… Well, nearly as anxious, anyway. Tom normally wasn't so short with him. He knew his friend had a point- they needed experience.


"Shit! Aurors!"

"I thought the inferi got them all?"

"They must have called back-up too quick-"Tom shot a few spells in rapid succession at the group. One auror went down from a blasting curse, wounded, but the others were deflected. Henry grabbed the nearest inferi, ignoring the revulsion he felt from the dead flesh. The vacant, glazed eyes looked to him blankly.

"Half of the inferi closest to aurors, focus on them," Henry hissed, then shoved the dead body away. He dared not rise his voice in the mayhem lest he call the aurors attention to him and Tom-Voldemort-but the spell on the inferi would let all hear the order given to one. Seemingly without cause all the inferi nearest the aurors turned to them, leaving a few abandoned victims to scurry away.

This raid was the sixth Tom and Henry had been in. This was an unusual sort of village, because the magic folk here lived peacefully side-by-side with muggles who knew of their existence. The ministry would have outlawed it, but all the muggles here had known for generations-it seemed pointless. These and similar areas were prime targets for Grindelwald and followers.

In some of the raids, a few of Grindelwald's supporters came along, all respectful to the masked teens who they knew were superiors-even if they didn't know why. Henry on raids wore an odd black mask shaped like a horse's face. He had slit-like eyes and a very thin opening over the mouth to breath and speak easier. Tom wore a bone-white mask with large eye-holes and several vertical rectangles over the mouth-he looked like a death-eater. Both their hoods were up.

"What now?" Henry hissed. "Fight or flight?"

Tom raised his wand, aimed at an auror, and opened his mouth to answer… Only to stop short as he saw a new group of aurors appear. The two leaders of the groups said something to each other, than began attacking the inferi with fire. Another larger group apparated into existence near the other two. And then another group, and another… They stopped coming, then, but now there seemed to be at least eighty of them. One or two natives of the town, emboldened, began casting their own spells as opposed to cowering and running.

"…Flight." It looked like Tom had difficulty uttering the phrase; he hated running. But it seemed the wisest thing to do. Only inferi had accompanied them on this trip. Easily replaceable. They, on the other hand…

"Agreed."

Simultaneously, they twisted… And nearly fell as nothing happened.

"Oh, shit…" an anti-apparation ward.

"Portkeys, Henry." Henry could tell Tom was uneasy as well. Without hesitation they took out their emergency portkeys. "Quickly, now, the aurors will notice us soon…" Henry didn't see how they hadn't so far- an immobile ring of inferi had gathered around them as the aurors appeared, as per their orders. The still group in all the chaos stood out like a sore thumb.

"Ready?" At Henry's nod of affirmation, Tom tapped the portkey twice with his wand. "Right-one…two….THREE!"

Nothing happened.

"Oh, shit…" an anti-portkey ward.

"Stop that!" Tom snapped.

"This is no time to argue!" Henry said severely. "Now, think. We either have to find a way out, or fight. And, honestly, the inferi are getting low."

"They'll notice us any second."

"They will," Henry agreed. He reached over to touch the shoulder of one of the zombies. "Hey, little conspicuous here- move it, guys." The inferi obediently joined the fight with their quickly decreasing comrades.

"Damn it!" This time Tom was doing the cursing. "The aurors have spread out, and I swear there are even more of them than before- they must be apparating from outside the ward. We're surrounded."

"Know any spells for this kind of thing, Voldemort?"

"Well, I know one that would cause the ground to explode rather fantastically…" Henry looked at him hopefully.

"Really?"

"Yes, actually, but I'm not a kamikaze, thank you." Henry deflated. It would take them out, too. Dammit. Henry opened his mouth to respond, then blanched and jerked back as a spell flew right past his nose. Tom stayed still, unfazed.

Bastard.

"They've seen us."

"Yes."

"Put your hands where we can see them and your wands on the ground!" The leading auror yelled with authority. They had, indeed, been finally noticed-even if it had taken a ridiculously long time. A group of about half a score of aurors was advancing on them warily, and they knew others would notice soon and come to the aurors' aid. They were wearing black cloaks and masks-the only two Dark supporting mortals in a field of falling inferi. Easily recognizable. Only a few of them were left. A thought came to Henry.

"Tom?" He murmured in parseltongue.

"Yes?"

"Cover me." Tom frowned, but raised his wand without further question. Henry transformed.

The aurors could not stop their gasps as the magnificent black Pegasus was revealed, and every eye widened-pegasi were light creatures, not dark! And black pegasi were unheard of! Tom got the idea immediately, and leapt onto his back. Henry leapt into the air and flew off strongly without further preamble. It took a few moments before the aurors gathered their wits enough to send spells after them, but those few that came near the swift form of Henry were easily batted aside by Tom. Even as Tom laughed loudly at the frantic aurors, he sent down a spell of his own-but this was not aimed at anyone in particular.

FiendFyre.

Would it destroy their own inferi? Undoubtedly. But they would go down, anyway. Even as Tom watched and Henry tried to put some distance between them and the place he saw several aurors go alight.

He grinned.


Grindelwald Supporters Send FiendFyre at Aurors!

Yesterday evening, the quiet little town of Grisdm was attacked by supporters of the dark lord Grindelwald. The most worrying part of this, however, is that it seems only two wizards (or is it one?) caused the mayhem. Over a hundred inferi accompanied them, and caused most damage to the town.

The aurors managed to corner two wizards wearing masks, after setting up apparition and portkey wards. Just when they believed to have the two caught, one morphed into a Pegasus. No current Pegasus animagus is registered, and magical forms are not believed possible anyway, whether by transformation or other spells, leaving this reporter baffled.

"It was terrible-a big, black beast with two signs like waves on its sides," an auror present at the scene states. "Poseidon! That was the word that sprang to my mind- maybe not a god, but some terrible spirit it surely was. I'll never forget the look of that monster."

At this point the second wizard, believed to be the Lord Voldemort rumored to be apprenticing under Grindelwald, who was riding his companion, shot FiendFyre back at the auror, causing terrible destruction. The current casualties are 36 of 92 aurors at the scene dead, 42 injured. Casualties of the town are as yet untallied.

The aurors vow to be alert for this pair in the feature, but it seems this Poseidon is etching a legacy worthy of his fierce namesake.

"…Poseidon. Nice."

"Tom, shut up."


A/N: Is it good? I'm a little wary bout the Poseidon thing, but I have a minor obsession with him and wanted to fit it in somewhere. And, in any case, Lord Henry just doesn't have that ring to it. So, what's you opinion on Lord Poseidon?

Please Review!